1.) AC3 patent royalty needs to be paid to Dolby as all your DVDs are encoded in AC3 (with some titles in LPCM)
2.) MPEG LA requires patent royalty as well for any MPEG2 playback, again, commercial DVD’s video streams are MPEG2

]]>By: Bruce Wagnerhttp://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133/comment-page-1#comment-232825
Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:42:57 +0000http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133#comment-232825Could someone please explain to me HOW Dell can get away with selling a pre-installed image of Ubuntu complete with the DVD playback code, within the USA, and Ubuntu (Canonical) can not provide it in the standard Ubuntu download (even if the have to have a separate splash-screen “agreement”/”acknowledgment”)…?

How can Dell do it legally, if Ubuntu itself cannot do it legally — within the US?

Mark Shuttleworth says: Dell installs a non-free application, from a vendor who has paid patent licenses for some of the technology required to decrypt DVD’s. It is not legal in the USA to bypass that system using free software. This is as silly as the old regulations that prevented companies in the US from putting strong cryptography in their products, but it’s the law there nonetheless.

]]>By: John Suit (aka: cipher_nemo)http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133/comment-page-1#comment-228774
Wed, 02 Jan 2008 19:54:39 +0000http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133#comment-228774Awesome! Now I have no reservations on recommending a Dell PC with Ubuntu pre-installed. Nice job!

This is one of the few areas where I was perplexed when I first tried Ubuntu (6.06 Dapper Drake). I have since enjoyed Xine and all of the restricted codecs that can be easily installed with automatic installers of restricted or proprietary codecs such as the Automatix installer. My first struggles with Ubuntu was getting it to play *all* of my DVDs and MP3 files.

Thank you for starting Canonical, releasing the Ubuntu project, and working with Dell to release it pre-installed on their PCs. Without you, fighting Microsoft would be a much more difficult challenge, especially when I evangelize to Windows users who couldn’t punch their way out of a technological paper bag.

]]>By: knolleary » Blog Archive » Links for December 17th through December 27thhttp://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133/comment-page-1#comment-225554
Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:49:39 +0000http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133#comment-225554[…] DVD playback now standard for Dell Ubuntu customers – Mark shares the news that the pre-installed Ubuntu image comes with DVD playback as standard. No word on the app used, but it is a good start. […]
]]>By: Chris Wardhttp://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133/comment-page-1#comment-222666
Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:59:28 +0000http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/133#comment-222666Yes, Canonical is based in England (actually, Isle of Man, but pretty much the same thing).

Including … or not … some DVD playing software really isn’t an engineering problem; it’s a commercial legal problem. Someone is bound to object; maybe a judge will agree with the objection; and it’s really not worth Mark Shuttleworth’s time and money to get tangled up in it. It might, for example, happen over the proposition that someone is going to import a Ubuntu into the USA.

It’s a mess, and it’s holding ‘the industry’ back. How do you learn to be an engineer, if every time you want to try something fairly basic (like make a DVD player or an ‘MP3′ player) you get the Economic Crimes police on your back ?